The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United StatesMarshall, John
History
The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1: Commander in Chief of the American Forces During the War; which Established the Independence of his Country and First; President of the United States
Marshall, John
Generals -- United States -- Biography; Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Washington, George, 1732-1799
The select men, as well as the council, having refused to provide
quarters for the troops, the governor ordered the state house to be
opened for their reception; and they took possession of all the
apartments in it, except that which was reserved for the council. The
people were filled with indignation at seeing the chamber of their
representatives crowded with regular soldiers, their counsellors
surrounded with foreign troops, and their whole city exhibiting the
appearance of a garrisoned town. With the difference of manners
between the soldiers and the inhabitants, and the strong prejudices
reciprocally felt against each other, it is not wonderful that
personal broils should frequently occur, and that mutual antipathies
should be still farther increased.[207]
[Footnote 207: Minot.]
While these measures were pursuing in America, every session of
parliament was opened with a speech from the King, stating that a
disposition to refuse obedience to the laws, and to resist the
authority of the supreme legislature of the nation, still prevailed
among his misguided subjects in some of the colonies. In the addresses
to the throne, both houses uniformly expressed their abhorrence of the
rebellious spirit manifested in the colonies, and their approbation of
the measures taken by his majesty for the restoration of order and
good government.
To give a more solemn expression to the sense of parliament on this
subject, the two houses entered into joint resolutions, condemning the
measures pursued by the Americans; and agreed to an address, approving
the conduct of the crown, giving assurances of effectual support to
such farther measures as might be found necessary to maintain the
civil magistrates in a due execution of the laws within the province
of Massachusetts Bay, and beseeching his majesty to direct the
governor of that colony to obtain and transmit information of all
treasons committed in Massachusetts since the year 1767, with the
names of the persons who had been most active in promoting such
offences, that prosecutions might be instituted against them within
the realm, in pursuance of the statute of the 35th of Henry VIII.[208]
[Footnote 208: Belsham. Prior documents.]
{1769}
The impression made by these threatening declarations, which seem to
have been directed particularly against Massachusetts, in the hope of
deterring the other provinces from involving themselves in her
dangers, was far from being favourable to the views of the mother
country. The determination to resist the exercise of the authority
claimed by Great Britain not only remained unshaken, but was
manifested in a still more decided form.
[Sidenote: Resolutions of the house of Burgesses of Virginia.]
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